Charles Busch to Star Off-Broadway in His Play Die Mommie Die!

Charles Busch's Die Mommie Die! will get its first New York City production this fall, with the playwright starring as Angela Arden, a role he created onstage in Los Angeles in 1999 and reprised in a 2003 feature film. The play, to be directed by Carl Andress, will begin previews at off-Broadway's New World Stages on October 10 and open on October 21. The limited engagement is scheduled to continue through February 17, 2008.

A comedy noir steeped in the glamour of 1960s Hollywood, Die Mommie Die! centers on fallen pop diva Arden Busch, who is trapped in a hateful marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, out-of-work TV actor Tony Parker, Angela gruesomely murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository. In a plot that reflects Greek tragedy as well as Hollywood kitsch, Angela's manipulative daughter, Edith, convinces her "emotionally disturbed" brother, Lance, that together they must avenge their father's death by killing their mother.

Die Mommie Die! premiered at the Coast Playhouse in Los Angeles in July 1999 in a production directed by Kenneth Elliott and starring Busch, Andress, Greg Mullavey, Dorie Barton, Wendy Worthington and Mark Capri. The film version, featuring a screenplay by Busch, had a supporting cast that included Jason Priestley, Natasha Lyonne, Frances Conroy, Philip Baker Hall and Stark Sands. A one-night Actors' Fund benefit reading of the play in New York in June 2006 starred Christopher Meloni, Jayne Houdyshell, Jenn Harris, Keith Nobbs and Tom Mardirosian, directed by Andress. The full cast for the off-Broadway production will be announced shortly.

Busch will star in a production of his hit play The Lady in Question at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor in August. His most recent play, Our Leading Lady, was produced off-Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club last season. His other plays include the Tony-nominated comedy The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Shanghai Moon, Red Scare on Sunset, Psycho Beach Party and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. In 2003, Busch collaborated with Boy George on the Broadway musical Taboo.

Die Mommie Die! is being produced off-Broadway by Daryl Roth and Bob Boyett. The production will feature scenic design by Michael Anania, costume design by Jessica Jahn, lighting design by Ben Stanton and sound design/music composition by Lewis Flinn. Busch's costumes are designed by Michael Bottari and Ron Case.